Alumnus offers warm and fuzzy tips to University of Florida advertising students

I had a great time down in G’ville two weeks ago. I strolled onto the University of Florida campus to talk with Professor Lisa Duke Cornell‘s ADV 4101 Copywriting and Visualization class. I walked the same route from Murphree Hall to Weimer Hall that I walked 12 years ago. Very cathartic.

This guy will talk your ear off.

Although the second floor classroom in Weimer looked exactly the same, much has changed in the advertising industry since I took Copy & Vis in 1998. I initially planned to talk about online advertising, but instead came at them like some kind of positive-psychology nutbag with questions like:

What do you love?

What are your passions?

What do you believe?

My talk, titled Thank You For This Moment, has a simple five-step message:

What a great day. And running through my head the whole time were these five words:

Thank you for this moment.

*As long as you’re not hurting yourself or anyone else. I’m not saying you should drink beer all day because being drunk is your favorite sort of moment. But maybe you love beer, and beer is big business. So blog about it brother! Everything in moderation. Also, we all know ads always have a legal disclosure with tiny text on the bottom. So here’s to keeping it real in Copy & Vis class. I love G’ville.

6 Responses to "Alumnus offers warm and fuzzy tips to University of Florida advertising students"

By Lisa Duke Cornell April 1, 2010 - 12:07 pm

Thomas,

I am sending a link to the whole class. Great resources!!!

We are looking forward to seeing more of you around here in the future. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and insights with the class. They learned so much from you.

And I aways love seeing you and the family!

Best regards, Lisa

By Jamie April 1, 2010 - 1:06 pm

I just wanted to thank you for coming to talk to our class! I really enjoyed hearing what you had to say, especially about following what you love. I left class feeling very happy and inspired, so thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to speak with us! It meant a lot! 🙂 -Jamie

By Kelsey April 4, 2010 - 9:20 pm

Hello, Your blog as well as your presentation are very insightful and helpful. I really appreciate you reaching out and extending your knowledge to others! I love the resources posted and have already checked a few links out 🙂 , thanks again.

Kelsey

By Brittany April 5, 2010 - 4:08 pm

Thomas,

It was great having you come to our class and talk with us about things that really matter in life. So many time we get guest speakers that make us tune out because we’ve heard it all before, but you really got our attention. You know exactly what we are going through so your message really hit home. Thanks for all of your encouragement!